[MP-Ryan]

Back to the topic:
I've been thinking that I should read some literary classics (also American) now that I don't need to do University work any more. Mark Twain's work has interested me, so has Charles Dickens'. I think I should check out also Dante's Divina Comedia and Kafka's Metamorphosis. Would any of you have other recommendations? Shakespeare doesn't count here.

In no particular order:

The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde
Alice in Wonderland & Through The Looking Glass - Lewis Carrol
The Lost World - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
All of the Sherlock Holmes adventures - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Odyssey - Homer
The Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne
The Mysterious Island, Parts I and II (Also known as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island) - Jules Verne
A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man And the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
Paradise Lost - Milton
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

There's dozens of others.  Some non-fiction you might also want to consider:
On The Origin Of Species - Charles Darwin
Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault
The History of Sexuality - Michel Foucault
Capital, Vol. I - Karl Marx
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy - Karl Marx
Man's Search For Meaning - Victor Frankl
Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes

Many of these are available for free off the Gutenberg.org website.

[NGTM-1R]

I've never heard of cocaine being made in a lab.

Possible, but unlikely.  Heroin or morphine is easier.

It does have to be processed to some degree.

[Mika]

I'm surprised I've managed to read half of those titles. I've always liked Jules Verne's books, which were and still are quite imaginative. What kind of books are The Lost World, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Farewell to Arms and Paradise Lost?

I'll take advantage to add one more book on the list of the books that everyone should read, that is "The Unknown Soldier" by Vaino Linna. It is probably one of the best books ever written about war, I just hope they have managed to do at least a half decent translation of it. Some actions and persons portrayed in that book seem quite incredible but some times reality is even stranger than fiction.

As a reference, there is scene where a soldier who has been blinded by shrapnel is carrying a person who has lost a limb but can see. The one who still has eye sight left provides direction information, up to the point they are driving military ambulance together - only to be ambushed later. In another scene, Russian company is ambushed and totally destroyed by two soldiers (this has actually happened).

Mika

[Polpolion]

You know what really sucks about my new sub? She tries to force her opinions on everyone all the time. I mean she hears me saying something, and she shouts "HOW could think of it THAT WAY? it's like THIS!!" and I was all like "what? Nothing you say will make me share your opinion." and she's like "Oh, come on! You don't mind a little debate, do you?" and I said "this isn't a debate, your just shouting at me, thats all" then she just tells everyone to shut up and she just goes on telling us about her viewpoint.

Gah dang, it I hate her so much.

EDIT: Come to think of it, I'd rather have the pedophile back. :

(no, he's not that good [teaching], she's that bad)

[Kosh]

Damn, good luck with that. Maybe if you are lucky she will send you to Jesus Camp for some good old fashioned indoctrination.